Teresa Coffman

Background

Teresa Coffman is Professor of Music at Rhode Island College where she oversees the choral program and conducts the Concert Chorus, Chamber Singers, and Women's Chorus and teaches conducting, studio voice and graduate conducting lessons. Under her direction, the RIC Choirs completed successful concert tours of Ireland (2002 and 2012), Great Britain (2004), Italy (2006), and Vienna, Slovakia, and Prague (2008), Portugal and Spain (2010), and Germany and the Czech Republic (2014). Another possible concert tour to Italy is planned for 2016. She also taught at Peru State College in Nebraska, the University of South Dakota, and at the University of Houston, where she received her Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting. Professional memberships include the American Choral Directors Association, Chorus America, International Federation for Choral Music, National Association of Teachers of Singing, National Collegiate Choral Organization, Conductor's Guild, College Music Society, and Pi Kappa Lambda Honorary Music Fraternity. She is a lifetime member of Sigma Alpha Iota and is currently a member of the executive board and past President of the Rhode Island chapter of ACDA. Her conducting teachers include Maynard Klein and Charles Hausmann, and she was selected to work with Rodney Eichenberger in week-long masterclasses with the Haystack Institute in Oregon and at the Choral Conductors Workshop in Virginia. She has also been a participant in the Westminster Conducting Symposium. She is the past Choral Director and Choral Department Chair of the Houston-based American Festival for the Arts Summer Music Conservatory for gifted high school musicians. An active choral clinician and champion of contemporary choral music, she has conducted choirs throughout the south, Midwest, and New England regions. Carlisle Floyd, Michael Remson, Jean Berger, Barbara Kolb, Paul Nelson, Michael Kregler, James Bohn, Joshua Jacobson, Libby Larsen, Alice Parker, Anthony Leach, Honey Meconi, and Eleanor Daley are among the musicians with whom she has worked in the interpretation and preparation of their choral works with her ensembles. She is the recipient of the RIC Faculty of Arts and Sciences Paul Maixner Distinguished Teaching Award and the RIC Alumni Faculty Award.

The Rhode Island College Chorus is a select, concert mixed choir of approximately 55 - 70 voices and is conducted by Teresa Coffman. Membership is open to any RIC student by audition. The Chorus performs a wide variety of literature -- from a cappella pieces to large-scale choral/orchestral works, from traditional works to multi-cultural and avant-garde pieces -- on a minimum of three concerts at Rhode Island College per academic year. Since 2000, in addition to regular performances at the College, they have performed for the Rhode Island State House General Assembly, for the regional Music Educators National Conference, with the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, with the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, and at various high schools, community organizations, and churches. They have worked with composers Carlisle Floyd, Michael Remson, Jean Berger, Libby Larsen, Alice Parker, and Eleanor Daley and with conductor Rodney Eichenberger. Members of the Chorus completed successful concert tours of Ireland (2002), Great Britain (2004), Italy (2006), and Vienna, Slovakia, and Prague (2008), and a 2010 concert tour of Portugal and Spain is planned. For more information, or to schedule an audition, please contact Dr. Teresa Coffman at 456-9506 or tcoffman@ric.edu.

The Rhode Island College Chamber Singers

The Rhode Island College Chamber Singers, conducted by Teresa Coffman, are selected by audition from members of the RIC Chorus. The ensemble was formed to provide a challenging, small ensemble experience for RIC's most advanced student singers, to provide musical entertainment and enrichment for campus and community organizations, to recruit for the college at local high schools, and to act as ambassadors for the College. After several years of inactivity, the ensemble was reestablished in the spring of 2000 during Teresa Coffman's first year as choral director at Rhode Island College. Since then, the group has performed on each College choral concert and for countless on- and off-campus organizations, usually averaging approximately thirty performances during the academic year. The ensemble consists of twelve to eighteen singers and performs a wide variety of literature, including Medieval chants, Renaissance though twenty-first century sacred and secular music, nontraditional and non-Western music, and vocal jazz arrangements. The group's first tour occurred in the spring of 2001 when the ensemble toured the New England area, singing at middle and high schools and churches. International tours include a May 2002 concert tour of Ireland, a 2004 concert tour of Scotland and Wales, a 2006 concert tour of Italy, and a 2008 concert tour of Vienna, Slovakia, and Prague. A 2010 concert tour of Portugal and Spain is planned. In anticipation of the Ireland tour, the Singers commissioned, performed, and recorded the work Chamber Music, a set of songs based on the poems of James Joyce by the Irish American composer Michael Remson. Other composers with whom the ensemble has worked include Jean Berger, Michael Kregler, Paul Nelson, Barbara Kolb, Libby Larsen, Carlisle Floyd, Alice Parker, and Eleanor Daley.

The Rhode Island College Women's Chorus and The Rhode Island College Men's Chorus

The Rhode Island College Women's Chorus, conducted by Teresa Coffman, and the Men's Chorus are the two newest additions to the RIC choral program, and were formed to offer a wider variety of choral possibilities for RIC students. Each performs on the regular RIC choral concerts and also performs a variety of choral literature - from Medieval sacred music to contemporary vocal jazz.